Armed robbery dispute led to strangulation death of man found in Ocmulgee River, authorities say

WARNER ROBINS -- A man found floating in the Ocmulgee River on Sunday was beaten and strangled before his body was dumped in the water and discovered several days later, authorities said Thursday.

Mathew Jacob Pike, 27, William Allen Slaton, 29, and Daniel Lee Slaton, 35, all of Warner Robins, have been charged with murder in connection with the death of Justin Arthur Klaffka, 25, of Centerville. The Slatons are brothers.

Investigators believe that Klaffka and the three men charged in his slaying participated in an armed robbery of a residence on Pleasant Hill Road in Warner Robins on April 8, said Houston County Sheriff’s Capt. Robert Clark. On April 10, the men got into an argument about whether Klaffka ratted out the three to those who were robbed.

That argument, which took place in the 100 block of Dixie Trail off Elberta Road in Warner Robins, led to the beating and strangulation of Klaffka, Clark said. Klaffka was then taken to Knowles Landing and his body dumped in the water. It was undetermined whether he died where he was assaulted or at the river bank, Clark said.

Klaffka’s body was discovered Sunday by four friends who were swimming near a popular fishing hole at the Knowles Landing boat ramp off Ga. 96 in south Houston County near the Twiggs County line.

“I’m shocked,” said his father, 47-year-old Gerry Klaffka, by telephone from his Florida home where family members have been gathering since learning Wednesday of the homicide. “That’s kind of extreme.

“If it’s the truth, and that’s what happened, it doesn’t make us love him any less,” he said.

Amanda Mitchell, the 28-year-old live-in girlfriend of Justin Klaffka, said he and those accused of his murder were all friends. She said she doesn’t know what to think about what authorities have said. She said Klaffka was known as “Jay” by his friends.

“I just hate to believe that the people that I’ve known for the last months wanted to hurt my boyfriend,” Mitchell said as she wiped away tears. “I don’t want to believe people can be friends to your face and turn around and do that.

“I want Jay to come walking up. I want him to come back.”

Mitchell said Klaffka told her the four had committed a robbery the day after it took place. She said he broke down and told her he was afraid for his life.

She said he was scared of retribution from those who were robbed. He told her that the three now accused of his slaying had put a knife to his throat and told him they would hurt Mitchell if he did not go along with the robbery.

“He was just scared of them all,” Mitchell said. “We sat in the floor and cried not knowing what to do.”

He left their mobile home with a friend April 10, and she never saw him again.

Susan Edwards, who lives near the Brantley Road mobile home where Mitchell and Klaffka lived, said she and her husband saw crime scene tape go up around the mobile home Tuesday. That was the day that sheriff’s investigators made a positive identification of the body from a fingerprint that was being run through a federal law enforcement data base. Edwards said the crime scene tape came down the next day.

“We saw the police cars,” she said. “We had no clue what was going on.”

Klaffka had moved to Centerville about 10 months ago from Broward County, Fla., on the outskirts of Miami, to start fresh, his father said. Klaffka was a good guy who had gotten into some minor scrapes here and there, Gerry Klaffka said. He’d been doing landscaping work until he was hospitalized by a staph infection that his girlfriend said was the result of a spider bite. He had recovered with the help of antibiotics but had not yet returned to work, Mitchell said.

Clark previously said that an underlying drug connection led to Klaffka’s death. He declined to elaborate Thursday.

Pike and the Slaton brothers are being held in the Houston County jail without bond. Additional charges are expected.

Several agencies were credited with helping sheriff’s investigators with the case, including Warner Robins police, Centerville police, the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the GBI and the Georgia State Patrol’s aviation unit and dive team.

To contact writer Becky Purser, call 256-9559.

This story was originally published April 19, 2012 at 4:55 PM with the headline "Armed robbery dispute led to strangulation death of man found in Ocmulgee River, authorities say ."